RIVERSIDE: August 2013 trial date for Inland terrorism defendants

Attorneys sounded doubtful about an Aug. 6 court date for four Inland-area men accused of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists by aiding al-Qaida in Afghanistan â" saying they need to review hundreds of hours of audio recordings and the contents of 28 seized computers.

The discussion came during the caseâs first status conference before U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips, who said she would examine whether the men should be transferred from a downtown San Bernardino County jail to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles to better handle attorney-client meetings.

Before the appearance in Phillipsâ court, Sohiel Omar Kabir, 35, of Pomona; Arifeen David Gojali, 21, of Riverside; Ralph Deleon, 21, of Ontario; and Miguel Santana, 21, of Upland, briefly appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Bristow for arraignment on a single conspiracy count. They all pleaded not guilty.

Gojali, Deleon and Santana were previously indicted. A superseding indictment was filed when Kabir was added, so the other three had to re-enter their pleas Wednesday, Dec. 19.

The young men spoke softly when answering questions in court; Deleon and Santana both addressed Phillips with âGood morning, your honor.â

The FBI said the four men intended to travel to Afghanistan to attack U.S. military troops and bases.

âThis is a complex case because of the nature and sensitivity of the discovery involved,â Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Jeanee DeWitt told Phillips. She said among the seized items were 12 laptop and 16 desktop computers along with âliterally hundreds of hours of audio tapes.â

Phillips asked the defense attorneys if they had concerns about the volume of material they would have to review while their clients are held at the San Bernardino County Central Detention Center in downtown San Bernardino. The lawyers responded that rules of the center meant their clients only had four hours a week to review material on computers, and that privacy was difficult.

âFour hours a week is obviously not enough time,â Phillips said. She told attorneys she would review whether it might be better to move the defendants to the Los Angeles facility, which opened in 1989 and is designed to chiefly hold in-custody federal inmates awaiting trial.

Deputy Public Defender Jeffrey Aaron, representing Kabir, said reviewing the amount of audio evidence alone might take attorneys into the late summer.

DeWitt estimated the trial would last four to six weeks. Phillips said her own rough estimate was eight weeks. DeWitt said it was likely the trial date would have to be moved again, and Phillips said she was reluctant to change the date more than once, and wanted the trial within a year at the latest.

In court filings, the government announced its intention to invoke the Classified Information Procedures Act, CIPA, which outlines the management of confidential information that might be handed over to defense attorneys. The act calls for the trial judge to evaluate classified evidence âin a way that does not impair the defendantâs right to a fair trial.â

The CIPA also allows a judge to âconsider national security interests in determining whether to permit discovery to be denied, restricted, or deferred.â

Government attorneys said they were still reviewing material to see what may come under the review rules of the CIPA, which calls for defense attorneys to sign non-disclosure agreements with the government for classified material they might receive.

The government said it was not anticipating a CIPA pretrial hearing for Wednesday, but âat some point down the road we may need to have a CIPA hearing,â DeWitt said.

Federal agents said Kabir served in the U.S. Air Force but returned to Afghanistan, where he was born, in July. Gojali, Deleon and Santana were arrested Nov. 16, the day they were to have left for Mexico City on the first leg of their journey to link with Kabir.

Kabir, whom FBI agents said had radicalized Deleon and Santana, and had persuaded them and Gojali to join him, was arrested by U.S. troops at a house in Kabul.

Federal agents said the men planned to use trucks, plastic explosives and sniper rifles to assault American bases and kill troops. They said the men also planned to attack targets in the United States if they ever returned from Afghanistan.

FBI agents used a confidential informant to follow their actions and record hours of conversations as the men discussed plans to join the Taliban and al-Qaida.

In court papers, Kabirâs attorneys described the unnamed informant as âa convicted drug trafficker â¦ he has been paid âoverâ a quarter of a million dollars to inform on others, and, although he should be deported as an alien with a controlled substance felony conviction, he has been permitted to stay in the United States.â

Three of the defendants face a maximum sentence of 15 years, if convicted as charged. Prosecutors said that sentencing guidelines that included Kabirâs criminal history could bring him a sentence of 30 years to life.

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